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Tag: Airlines
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FAA: Grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 jets to return to service after inspections
FAA: Grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 jets to return to service after inspections – CBS News
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United pulls plans for Boeing’s biggest 737 Max jet after Max 9 groundings
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United Airlines Holdings Inc. on Tuesday said it was rethinking its longer-term plans for Boeing’s biggest 737 Max jet, the Max 10, after the government’s grounding of dozens of Max 9s this month raised questions over whether the aircraft maker could still deliver planes on time.
United
UAL,
+5.31%
Chief Executive Scott Kirby said during the airline’s earnings call on Tuesday that it wasn’t canceling its orders for the Max 10. But he said the airline was taking the jet “out of our internal plans.”“We’ll be working on what that means exactly with Boeing,” he said. “But Boeing is not going to be able to meet their contractual deliveries on at least many of those airplanes.”
United, during the call, said that it had 277 Max 10 jets on order for the rest of the decade. Of the 107 jets set for delivery this year, 31 were Max 9s. But Chief Financial Officer Michael Leskinen said was “unrealistic” to expect those jets to arrive as currently planned.
“Look,” he said. “The reality is that with the with the Max grounding, this is the kind of straw that broke the camel’s back with believing that the Max 10 will deliver on the schedule we had hoped for.”
He added: “It’s a great aircraft. But we can’t count on it. So we’re working on alternate plans.”
The decision on the Max 10 marks the latest blow to Boeing’s
BA,
-1.60%
reputation, as safety concerns pile up after a panel tore off a 737 Max 9 jet flown by Alaska Airlines earlier this month.The Federal Aviation Administration grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9s for inspections, leading to scores of flight cancellations for both United and Alaska
ALK,
+2.87% .
United, when it reported fourth-quarter results on Monday, said it expected to lose money in the first quarter, following the impact of those cancellations. Still, shares were up on Tuesday on United’s full-year profit forecast.The FAA over the weekend also recommended that operators of Boeing’s 737-900ER planes “visually inspect mid-exit door plugs to ensure the door is properly secured.” Regulators around the world grounded the 737 Max in 2019 after two fatal crashes.
Meanwhile, Ben Minicucci, the chief executive of Alaska Airlines, in an interview with NBC News published Tuesday, said inspectors found loose bolts on “many” of its Boeing 737 Max 9s after the mid-flight blowout.
“I’m more than frustrated and disappointed,” he said in that interview. “I am angry. This happened to Alaska Airlines. It happened to our guests and happened to our people. And my demand on Boeing is, what are they going to do to improve their quality programs in-house?”
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How Denver International Airport became one of the fastest-growing airports in the world
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Last year was Denver International Airport’s busiest on record.
While airline stocks have yet to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels, passengers have returned in droves — and millions of them are flying through the Colorado hub.
“We will end 2023 much higher than our forecast at about 78 million passengers annually,” said Phil Washington, CEO of the Denver International Airport. “So this has been tremendous growth.”
The airport, known as DIA to Colorado locals, opened in 1995. It was originally built to handle 50 million passengers per year, but now that number is expected to reach more than 100 million people per year by 2027, according to DIA estimates.
OAG, a global travel data provider, said Denver went from the 21st busiest airport in the world in 2019 to the sixth in 2023.
United Airlines is Denver’s biggest operator with 46.7% market share, followed by Southwest at 30.7% and Frontier Airlines at 9.7%, according to DIA.
The midcontinent airport has become United’s busiest hub. It recently invested nearly $1 billion in Denver to add more gates, flights and destinations, and opened the largest lounge in its network.
“About 60% of our customers are connecting from other places. Forty percent of our customers are local Denver, and it’s a fast growing city,” said Jonna McGrath, vice president of Denver Airport operations for United Airlines. “We want to grow before 2030 to about 650 flights a day.”
CNBC got a behind-the-scenes look at United’s Denver operations and explored how the airport and the airline plan to keep up with demand.
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JetBlue, Spirit Airlines appeal court ruling blocking their proposed merger
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JetBlue Airways Corp. and Spirit Airlines Inc. said late Friday that they have appealed a court ruling that earlier this week blocked their planned merger.
JetBlue
JBLU,
-1.19%
and Spirit
SAVE,
+17.19%
announced the appeal in a terse press release that provided no more details, adding only that the process is “consistent with the requirements of the merger agreement.”Wall Street was split on whether the airlines would be legally obliged to appeal the Tuesday ruling, which sided with the Justice Department in saying that a merger between low-cost JetBlue and ultra-low-cost Spirit would hurt competition.
Shares of Spirit rallied 12% after hours Friday, while JetBlue shares fell nearly 2%. Analysts at JP Morgan said this week that the ruling freed JetBlue from a “costly merger.”
Earlier Friday, Spirit sought to reassure investors about its liquidity and issued an upbeat fourth-quarter revenue guidance. Spirit has amassed about $5.5 billion in debt, and is reportedly seeking advisers to help restructure it.
The likelihood of Spirit attracting a new merger or takeover bid is considered low without a debt restructuring. Frontier Group Holdings Inc.
ULCC,
-2.13%
and JetBlue competed for Spirit in 2022, with Frontier ultimately bowing out in July of that year.Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth said in a note earlier Friday that it was “clear to us that Spirit is pressing JetBlue to appeal the antitrust ruling, but we continue to believe the chances of success are low.”
Syth has estimated that an appeal would take some four to five months.
Shares of Spirit have lost 67% in the past 12 months, while shares of JetBlue are down 41%. The U.S. Global Jets ETF
JETS
has lost 9% in the same period. Those losses contrast with gains of 24% for the S&P 500 index
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Spirit Airlines Stock Gets a Downgrade. It’s the Least of the Carrier’s Problems.
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Spirit Airlines stock was falling again Thursday as the ultra-low-cost carrier’s predicament worsened.
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Judge blocks JetBlue-Spirit merger after DOJ's antitrust challenge
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LaGuardia International Airport Terminal A for JetBlue and Spirit Airlines in New York.
Leslie Josephs | CNBC
A federal judge Tuesday blocked JetBlue Airways‘ purchase of Spirit Airlines after the Justice Department sued to stop the merger, saying the deal would drive up fares for price-sensitive consumers by taking the discount carrier out of the market.
JetBlue’s proposed $3.8 billion purchase of discounter Spirit would have produced the country’s fifth-largest airline, a deal the carriers had said would help them better grow and compete against larger rivals like Delta and United.
“JetBlue plans to convert Spirit’s planes to the JetBlue layout and charge JetBlue’s higher average fares to its customers,” U.S. District Court Judge William Young wrote in his decision. “The elimination of Spirit would harm cost-conscious travelers who rely on Spirit’s low fares.”
The decision, handed down Tuesday, marks a victory for a Justice Department that has aggressively sought to block deals it views as anti-competitive.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for tens of millions of travelers who would have faced higher fares and fewer choices had the proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit been allowed to move forward,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce the nation’s antitrust laws to protect American consumers.”
The DOJ alleged in its lawsuit, filed in March, that JetBlue’s acquisition of the budget airline would force many passengers to pay higher fares by eliminating Spirit and “about half of all ultra-low-cost airline seats in the industry.”
Spirit has grown rapidly in recent years by offering cheap fares and fees for everything else from seat assignments to carry-on luggage, a no-frills model that has become a favorite punchline for late-night comedians.
“Spirit is a small airline. But there are those who love it,” Young, who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, wrote in his ruling. “To those dedicated customers of Spirit, this one’s for you.”
Spirit shares plunged after the ruling and ended the day down 47%, while JetBlue’s stock gained about 5%.
Spirit’s market capitalization as of Friday’s close was $1.66 billion, less than half of JetBlue’s proposed purchase price. The Miramar, Florida-based airline has been struggling with grounded airplanes due to an engine manufacturing issue and softer-than-expected travel demand.
Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways stock after a federal judge blocked the carrier’s proposed merger.
JetBlue and Spirit said in a joint statement that they disagreed with the ruling and were evaluating next steps.
“We continue to believe that our combination is the best opportunity to increase much needed competition and choice by bringing low fares and great service to more customers in more markets while enhancing our ability to compete with the dominant U.S. carriers,” the carriers said.
A different U.S. District Court judge in Massachusetts sided with the Justice Department last year to block JetBlue’s regional alliance with American Airlines in the Northeast, a partnership that allowed the carriers to coordinate routes and schedules.
JetBlue and Spirit said Tuesday that “JetBlue’s termination of the Northeast Alliance and commitment to significant divestitures have removed any reasonable anti-competitive concerns that the Department of Justice raised.”
Hard-won deal
JetBlue fought hard for Spirit. It launched a hostile takeover bid weeks after Frontier Airlines and Spirit agreed to merge in a cash-and-stock deal. Frontier’s business model is more similar to Spirit’s, and both airlines have similar fleet configurations, unlike JetBlue’s more full-service model which stands in contrast to Spirit’s discount strategy.
After Spirit’s board rejected JetBlue’s initial takeover offer, Spirit CEO Ted Christie said in May 2022 that he didn’t think a JetBlue deal would be approved by regulators, citing the American Airlines partnership and JetBlue’s plan to take seats out of the market.
“It will not happen in our opinion and for that reason our board has rejected it and to imply otherwise again, we think is insulting,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” at the time.
Spirit shareholders ended up rejecting the Frontier deal and months later approving a sweetened JetBlue proposal in October 2022.
New CEO
Young’s decision leaves New York-based JetBlue grappling with next steps, tasking incoming CEO Joanna Geraghty with steering the airline on a new path. Geraghty was announced as successor to CEO Robin Hayes after he said earlier this month that he would retire.
JetBlue argued access to Spirit’s similar fleet of Airbus planes would allow it to grow quickly when planes and pilots are in short supply, growth it said it needs to compete against bigger airlines. The carrier operates in highly congested airspace in New York and other cities, and had planned to use Spirit as a way to gain access to more routes and travelers.
Years of previous consolidation left United, Delta, American and Southwest in control of about three-quarters of the domestic market.
JetBlue planned to remodel Spirit’s yellow planes by removing the branding and seats from the tightly packed jets to provide more of a full-service model.
“Although Spirit’s yellow aircraft livery would not immediately be repainted as JetBlue planes, at the moment the merger is consummated, Spirit and JetBlue would no longer be competitors,” Young wrote in his decision.
Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO:
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Flight cancellations pile up as winter storm, 737 Max 9 grounding disrupt travel
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An Embraer E175LR passengers aircraft of American Eagles airlines (C) taxxing before take-off to Pittsburg is seen at La Guardia Airport on January 9, 2024.
Charly Triballeau | Afp | Getty Images
Airlines canceled about 2,000 U.S. flights Friday as they grapple with winter weather and the grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes.
Storms in the Midwest helped drive more than 4,500 delays, with major disruptions around Chicago and Detroit, major hubs for the largest U.S. carriers, according to flight-tracker FlightAware.
About 40% of flights at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, a hub for United Airlines and American Airlines, were canceled after a snowstorm led to an over two-hour ground stop. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, a hub for Delta Air Lines, had about 20% of flights Friday either delayed or canceled due to the storms.
Southwest Airlines, which has a big operation out of Chicago Midway, canceled more than 400 flights, while more than 900 were delayed.
United canceled about 10% of its mainline flights and delayed about 20%.
Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded Boeing 737 Max 9s after a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines flight, so the jets can undergo inspections. That grounding has continued to disrupt travel for both United and Alaska Airlines, the only two U.S. airlines that operate the aircraft.
Alaska Airlines said Friday it would cancel all flights on the Max 9 through Sunday as it waits for documentation from Boeing and the FAA to begin inspections.
About 20% of the carrier’s flights were canceled Friday and more than 10% were delayed, FlightAware data showed. Alaska said that between 110 and 150 flights per day would be impacted by the grounding of the Max 9.
“We regret the significant disruption that has been caused for our guests by cancellations due to these aircraft being out of service,” the company said.
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Will air fares remain high in 2024? Here's what experts say
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The airline industry’s dramatic climb from the depths of the pandemic may be ending soon.
A review of multiple reports shows stabilization across several key metrics, as rapid growth ends and a new era of normalcy begins.
“2024 is expected to mark the end of the dramatic year-on-year increases that have been characteristic of the recovery in 2021-2023,” a December report by the International Air Transport Association said.
Global flight capacity is expected to be restored, with some 40 million flights (up from 38.9 million in 2019) projected to carry a record 4.7 billion people (up from 4.5 billion people in 2019), according to IATA.
As leisure travel demand softens and “revenge travel” ends, supply and demand in the commercial airline industry is hitting an equilibrium, which will help stabilize airfares in 2024, according to Amex GBT Consulting.
Airfares: what to expect in 2024
Global airfares are expected to rise between 3%-7% next year, as airlines grapple with high fuel costs, sustainability changes and fleet upgrades, according to the FCM Consulting’s “Global Trend Report” for the third quarter of 2023.
However, several other reports expect flight prices to soften.
The travel arrangements company BCD Travel expects global fares to drop next year, but just slightly — less than 1% compared to 2023 — with a more pronounced drop in airfares to and from Asia (3% for business class, nearly 4% for economy), according to its “Travel Market Report 2024 Outlook.”
“After recent rises in fares, we should expect a modest price correction in some markets in 2024, although underlying pricing should generally remain strong,” it said.
However, Amex GBT’s “Air Monitor 2024” is expecting only international airfares to drop in 2024 — notably for flights between North America and Asia. The report states regional fares will remain stable or slightly increase.
We should expect a modest price correction in some markets in 2024.
BCD Travel
Travel Market Report 2024 Outlook
Travelers in the U.S. may see some savings. The travel company Hopper expects fares in the U.S. to drop — at least for the first six months, according to its “2024 Travel Outlook” report.
Overall, passengers shouldn’t expect much change in 2024, says John Grant, chief analyst at the travel data company OAG.
“There will be a continuation of the status quo, with only minor fluctuations in fare prices,” he said. “Although we may see a slight shaving of fares as demand softens in the very low season, the fundamentals of a high operating costs base remain [plus] increased salaries, oil prices etc. suggest that we will not see much of a shift.”
Who’s winning the recovery race?
Commercial airlines in three regions are expected to be profitable in 2023, according to IATA:
- North America: remains the “standout region” and first to return to profitability in 2022
- Middle East: strong financial performances expected in 2023 and 2024
- Europe: a strong end expected for 2023 despite ongoing war and conflict in Ukraine and Gaza
IATA projects that one more region will become profitable in 2024:
- Asia-Pacific: despite the full return of international Chinese travelers, domestic travel in the region, especially in India and China, remain strong
And two are expected to remain “in the red” at the end of 2024:
- Latin America: held back by economic and social turmoil, despite a strong showing from Mexico
- Africa: thwarted by financial, infrastructure, and connectivity issues
Outlook for 2024
Many airlines reported record earnings in 2023 but “the landscape could look less favorable in 2024,” according to Amex GBT’s Air Monitor 2024.
Global economic growth last year, in the face of high inflation and high interest rates, may have occurred due to a delay, rather than a lack, of market reaction, according to BCD Travel’s report.
“The transmission into the wider economy of the subduing effects of policy tightening has simply taken longer than economists had expected,” it states.
The report outlined other pressures facing the industry, including geopolitical problems, supply chain issues, staffing shortages, and rising fuel and labor costs.
However, several tailwinds may bolster the industry this year, including the long-awaited return of business travel, which is expected to pick up in 2024.
Projections by IATA show industry revenues and profits are expected to increase in 2024.
People love to travel and that has helped airlines to come roaring back to pre-pandemic levels of connectivity.
Willie Walsh
IATA’s Director General
The association expects global revenues to reach a record-making $964 billion dollars next year, with net profits of $25.7 billion, it said.
This would be a 2.7% net profit margin — a slight increase from the 2.6% profit margin expected for 2023, the report said.
However, IATA also stated that the industry faces considerable challenges, from customer competition and high operating costs to government regulations.
“People love to travel and that has helped airlines to come roaring back to pre-pandemic levels of connectivity,” IATA’s Director General Willie Walsh said in the report.
However, “industry profits must be put into proper perspective. While the recovery is impressive, a net profit margin of 2.7% is far below what investors in almost any other industry would accept.”
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Malaysia's Capital A paves way for merger of AirAsia's operations globally
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Malaysia’s Capital A Berhad CAPI.KL said on Monday it intends to sell its aviation business to long-haul unit AirAsia X Bhd AIRX.KL, with a goal of consolidating both its long and short-haul operations under a single AirAsia brand.
Nicky Almasy | Moment | Getty Images
Malaysia’s Capital A Berhad said on Monday it intends to sell its aviation business to long-haul unit AirAsia X Bhd, with a goal of consolidating both its long and short-haul operations under a single AirAsia brand.
The proposed deal, which is subject to a final agreement being signed and to approvals from shareholders and courts, involves the sale of AirAsia Berhad and AirAsia Aviation Group Ltd, which includes AirAsia units in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Cambodia, Group Chief Executive Tony Fernandes told reporters without disclosing any deal value.
Full details of the deal would be announced “in the next two weeks”, he told reporters at AirAsia’s 2024 outlook briefing.
“Eventually AirAsia X and AirAsia will be merged into one airline… my dream is for it to be one ASEAN airline,” Fernandes said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
AirAsia was founded in 2001 with two aircraft and has since become one of Asia’s largest budget airline operator with a fleet of some 200 planes serving markets including Southeast Asia and China.
Both Capital A and AirAsia X were hard hit by pandemic travel restrictions and classified by Malaysia’s stock exchange as PN17, or financially distressed. Such firms may be de-listed from the exchange if they fail to stabilize their finances within a set time frame.
AirAsia X was removed from the classification in November, after undertaking measures to improve its financial position.
Fernandes said the group’s airlines will likely return to full pre-pandemic capacity by the end of the first quarter. He said they have 400 planes on order and Airbus will start delivering new A321 aircraft by the second quarter of 2025.
We are confident that by separating the aviation business from Capital A, the non-aviation businesses within the group, which we feel are currently undervalued by the market, will also be recognized for their intrinsic value and potential.
Tony Fernandes
Group Chief Executive of Capital A Berhad
It also hopes to add routes to Europe, South America and Africa by the end of this year.
Fernandes, who told the briefing that he intends to retire within five years, said the airline sale would help Capital A raise funds and focus on its non-aviation business, which include payments firm BigPay, logistics arm Teleport, and online travel agency airasia MOVE.
“We are confident that by separating the aviation business from Capital A, the non-aviation businesses within the group, which we feel are currently undervalued by the market, will also be recognized for their intrinsic value and potential,” he said in a separate statement.
Capital A plans to present a PN17 regularization plan by June 30, after the completion of the aviation disposal, he said.
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Boeing’s financials won’t be hurt by latest 737 Max issues, analysts say. The company’s size is one reason.
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Alaska Airlines, United Airlines and Turkish Airlines have all grounded their Boeing 737 Max 9 airplanes after part of one such jet tore away during an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday. But despite the potential safety risks for travelers and further damage to Boeing’s
BA,
-8.03%
reputation, some Wall Street analysts, for now, have downplayed the financial impact for the jet maker.In part, they pointed to the company’s status as one of two major players in aircraft production — the other being Airbus
EADSY,
+3.52% .
They also cited a tighter supply of available aircraft and limited near-term impact, at least while investigators try to figure out the cause of the incident.Those airlines and others took the action over the weekend after a panel on a jet blew out about 10 minutes into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 at an altitude of about 16,000 feet.
No one died in the incident. But the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the temporary grounding of certain Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft. The order covered 171 planes.
Shares of Boeing fell 8.2% as the stock weighed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA.Still, some Wall Street analysts on Monday said to buy the stock anyway. They said the latest difficulties with the aircraft — which follow the 2019 grounding of Max jets by many nations following two fatal crashes — were unlikely to have a big near-term financial impact.
BofA analysts, in a research note dated Sunday, said that “at this point in time, due to the duopoly nature of the industry, we do not see this impacting orders for any of the 737 MAX variants. However, if the hits to the program do keep coming … at some point, the flying public may lose confidence in the 737 MAX which could ultimately impact sales.”
The analysts said it wasn’t clear yet whether the blowout on Friday was due to an assembly mistake at Boeing, an improper installation from fuselage maker Spirit AeroSystems or oversight issues elsewhere. But they noted that the aircraft was relatively new, having been delivered on Oct. 31. And they said that “some scrutiny must be saved for regulators as well, as the FAA is ultimately responsible for certificating these aircraft before delivery.”
Spirit AeroSystems’ stock
SPR,
-11.13%
was down 11%.Analysts at William Blair also said they didn’t expect a big hit to Boeing’s financials.
“While the Alaska Airlines door plug accident was terrifying, we do not believe that it will have a major financial impact, unless another incident occurs after the aircraft returns to service,” they said in a note on Monday.
Analysts there estimated that over the past two months, the Max 9 made up less than one-fifth of Boeing’s total deliveries. They said those deliveries would only be “modestly impacted over the first quarter as it could take some time to determine the cause.”
Of the 23 analyst ratings on Boeing’s stock tracked by FactSet, 18 are buy ratings or the equivalent.
Read more: How Boeing’s latest 737 Max problem is hurting the Dow
However, Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker said the 737 Max 9 issues will likely disrupt first-quarter results for United Airlines
UAL,
+2.78%
and Alaska Air
ALK,
-0.21% .“This will hopefully be a situation resolved in days/weeks rather than months, but it will also serve as a reminder of how fragile airline capacity can be despite the overhang of capacity,” Shanker said in a Monday research note.
United Airlines’ stock rose 2.4% on Monday, while Alaska Air’s dipped by 0.3%.
Along with United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Turkish Airlines, Copa Airlines and Aeromexico grounded about 40 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes, according to reports.
According to Deutsche Bank analysts, the affected fleet accounts for 16.1% of Alaska Airlines flights and 6.6% of United flights, although United has more 737 Max 9 aircraft than Alaska.
Other airlines with the plane in their fleet include Jet Airways of India with one plane, Jin Air of Korea with three, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
KLMR,
with five and Korean Air Lines
003490,
-1.52%
with nine, according to Planespotter.net.European regulators also grounded the 737 Max 9 for inspection.
Some major airlines do not have any 737 Max 9s in their fleets, including American Airlines
AAL,
+7.21% ,
Southwest Airlines
LUV,
-0.10%
and Air Canada
AC,
+3.42% ,
according to reports.Also read: Shares in Boeing slump, supplier Spirit AeroSystems tanks, after panel blows out
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Missing door plug that detached from Alaska Airlines plane found in Oregon backyard
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An aircraft engine is being tested at Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix.
Alwyn Scott | Reuters
A missing door plug that could be key to the investigation into what caused it to detach from a plane midflight Friday has been found in the backyard of a Portland, Oregon-area resident, officials said Sunday.
After the end of a news conference in which National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy laid out the probe’s status, she returned to give a piece of positive news: “I’m excited to announce that we found the door plug,” she said.
Identifying the resident who sent two photos of the item to the NTSB only as Bob, a schoolteacher, she said, “Thank you, Bob.”
“We’re going to go pick that up and make sure that we begin analyzing it,” Homendy said.
At the end of the first full day of the NTSB investigation into the accident on board Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, the agency’s chair indicated that some factors were complicating the probe: The plane’s cockpit voice recorder’s record of the event was inadvertently taped over, and, at the time, the door plug had not been found.
“That is unfortunately a loss for us,” Homendy said, lamenting the loss of voice data and sounding frustrated during a news conference Sunday night. “That is a loss for safety.”
A JetBlue Airways plane taxis next to American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines aircraft at Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday, April 6, 2020.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Homendy supports expanding the minimum time recorded on the devices from two hours to 25 hours. Such a time span would have saved the cockpit voice data from Friday’s accident.
She said the device from Friday’s flight automatically recorded over the pertinent voice data because someone failed to power it down. It starts a fresh recording, wiping out the last one, every two hours.
“The circuit breaker was not pulled,” Homendy said.
‘They heard a bang’
She described chaos and communication issues on board the Boeing 737 Max 9 as flight crew reported hearing a loud noise and the cabin rapidly depressurized Friday evening over the Portland area.
“They heard a bang,” she said.
The plane’s first officer lost her headset in the depressurization, and the captain had headset problems, as well, Homendy said. So they turned on a speaker for communication, she said.
“Communication was a serious issue,” Homendy said.
At the same time, the cockpit door opened violently, and a laminated emergency checklist pilots use in just such a situation flew out, the chair said.
“It did blew open during the explosive decompression,” Homendy said of the cockpit door.
The pilots turned to another reference guide, a handbook, she said, as a flight attendant took three tries to shut the cockpit door.
“The actions of the flight crew were really incredible,” Homendy said. “It was very violent when the door was expelled out of the plane. There was a lot going on.”
Homendy said the situation could have been far more dire had the plane been at cruising altitude, about 35,000 feet.
Earlier Sunday she spoke to NBC News about task ahead for NTSB investigators and said the “stakes are high.”
The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered some Boeing 737 Max 9 airplanes, the model flown in the Alaska Airlines incident, to be grounded and issued a directive requiring inspections before certain aircraft can fly again. The new directive affects 171 planes worldwide.
During Sunday night’s news conference, Homendy described some of the damage inside the plane. It included two seats, unoccupied by chance, that sustained such violent force that their frames had “torqued.”
Both seats in row 26 were missing their headrests, and one was missing a seat back. In all, damage was found along 12 of the plane’s seat rows, Homendy said.
She expressed concern over three babies who were held in the laps of their caregivers. The NTSB, the FAA and Alaska Airlines all recommend, but don’t require, that young children travel in car seats secured in separate, ticketed seats.
Analyzing the door plug
Investigators are looking at how the door plug — a panel where an optional emergency exit can be placed depending on passenger capacity — was fastened before it blew out of the plane, Homendy said.
They also want to know more about air pressurization alerts that went off on the plane during flights on Dec. 7 and on Wednesday and Thursday, the latter being the days before the accident.
She said the airline prohibited the aircraft from embarking on long flights over water — specifically from traveling to Hawaii — until the issue could be checked out more thoroughly. By Friday night’s flight from Portland to Ontario, California, that inspection hadn’t been completed, Homendy said.
She said the issue had been described to the NTSB has “benign” and that it was unclear whether there was any correlation between those alerts and Friday’s accident.
Homendy said investigators were focused in part on how the door plug was fastened and whether there were failures related to it, although she said the structural integrity of the aircraft was intact following the accident.
She described two hinges at the bottom of the plug that allow a small degree of opening for routine inspections as well as four “stop fittings” in the shape of circles.
“The purpose is to prevent that door plug from being pushed out of the air frame,” she said.
All those elements were going to get a close look, Homendy said.
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Alaska Air blowout’s missing 737 Max fuselage chunk so hard to find investigators are asking for public’s help
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The National Transportation Safety Board appealed to the public to help locate the missing door that suffered a blowout on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 as the agency began the process of finding out what went wrong.
“We’ve now determined based on our definition of substantial damage that this is an accident, not an incident,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said at a Saturday night press briefing in Portland, Oregon. “We are very fortunate this didn’t end up in something more tragic.”
The plane was carrying 171 passengers and six crew from Portland to Ontario, California on Jan. 5 when the crew reported a pressurization issue. What followed was a rear left part of the fuselage blowing out, leaving the hole resembling the opening for a door. The aircraft returned to Portland about 20 minutes after takeoff, having reached an altitude of about 16,000 feet (4,800 meters).
On the Max 9, Boeing includes a cabin exit door located just behind the wings, but before the rear exit door. This is activated in dense seating layouts to meet evacuation requirements. The doors are not activated on Alaska Air aircraft and are permanently “plugged.”
No one was seated in the immediate two seats — 26 A and B — nearest the plugged door, Homendy said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also helping local law enforcement track down the door.
Flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the plane will be sent to a laboratory Sunday for analysis, the NTSB said.
Homendy said the NTSB investigation will include a look at the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of Boeing Co. and the manufacturer’s process for planemaking on the affected aircraft type. She stressed everything would be studied at the early stages, and nothing would be excluded until it could hone in on the causes of interest.
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United Airlines to ground Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after panel blew off Alaska Air flight
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A United Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft lands at San Francisco International Airport on March 13, 2019 in Burlingame, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
United Airlines is preparing to ground dozens of its Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft for inspections, a day after a panel blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The announcement to ground the planes could come as early as Saturday, the person said. Alaska Airlines announced it would ground its Max 9 fleet after the incident on Friday.
No serious injuries were reported aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, according to federal safety officials. The plane returned to Portland shortly after takeoff on Friday after a pressurization issue was reported. Boeing delivered the planes late last year.
The Federal Aviation Administration didn’t immediately comment.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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Alaska Airlines grounds Boeing 737 Max 9 fleet after section blows out midair
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An Alaska Airlines plane takes off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on December 4, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Alaska Airlines will temporarily ground its fleet of 65 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after a section of the plane blew out midflight on Friday, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing.
“Each aircraft will be returned to service only after completion of full maintenance and safety inspections,” CEO Ben Minicucci said. “We anticipate all inspections will be completed in the next few days.”
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was heading to Ontario, California from Portland, Oregon, when it returned shortly after departure with 171 passengers and six crew aboard, the airline said.
Images and video of the new Boeing 737 Max 9 shared on social media showed a gaping hole on the side of the plane and passengers using oxygen masks. It landed back in Portland at 5:26 p.m. local time, according to Flightradar24. It had reached an altitude of 16,325 feet before returning to Portland.
The National Transportation Safety Board said “no serious injuries” were reported. It is sending a team to Portland to investigate, arriving later on Saturday. The Federal Aviation Administration also said it plans to investigate.
“While this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation,” Alaska said.
The plane was certified in November, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.
‘Explosive decompression’
Boeing also said it was aware of the incident but declined to comment further.
“We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer,” it said in a statement. “A Boeing technical team stands ready to support the investigation.”
The incident was described as “an explosive decompression at the window exit,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the labor union that represents Alaska’s cabin crew and flight attendants at United, Spirit and other carriers.
“Our Union strongly believes this decision [to ground the Max 9 fleet] is a prudent and necessary step toward ensuring the safety of all crew and passengers,” she said in a statement. “We will closely monitor the safety inspection process to ensure that aircraft are not returned to service until they are deemed safe for all.”
‘Plugged’ exit door
The Boeing 737 Max 9 has a cabin exit door behind the wings for use in dense seating cabin configurations, like those used by budget airlines, according to Flightradar24.
“The doors are not activated on Alaska Airlines aircraft and are permanently ‘plugged,'” Flightradar23 said.
The airline didn’t immediately respond to a comment about the door and Boeing declined to comment beyond its statement.
United Airlines, which also has 737 Max 9 in its fleet, didn’t immediately comment.
There are 215 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes in service worldwide, according to aviation-data firm Cirium, and Alaska had completed 5,024 flights with the aircraft before Friday’s incident.
The Boeing 737 Max 9 is a larger version of Boeing’s best-selling jetliner, the 737 Max 8. Max planes were grounded worldwide in 2019 after two fatal crashes within five months. The U.S. lifted its flight ban of the jets in late 2020 after software and training updates.
Late last year, Boeing urged airlines to inspect aircraft for a “possible” loose bolt in the rudder control system, the latest in a series of manufacturing flaws on the planes that have prompted additional inspections.
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Alaska Airlines grounds all Boeing 737-9 Max planes after flight suffers midair window blowout
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Alaska Airlines grounded all of its Boeing 737-9 aircraft late Friday, hours after a window and piece of fuselage on one such plane blew out in midair and forced an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon.
The incident occurred shortly after takeoff and the gaping hole caused the cabin to depressurize. Flight data showed the plane climbed to 16,000 feet (4,876 meters) before returning to Portland International Airport.
The airline
ALK,
+3.10%
said the plane landed safely with 174 passengers and six crew members.“Following tonight’s event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement.
Each of the aircraft will be returned to service after full maintenance and safety inspections, which Minicucci said the airline anticipated completing within days.
The airline provided no immediate information about whether anyone was injured or the possible cause.
The plane was diverted about about six minutes after taking off at 5:07 p.m., according to flight tracking data from the FlightAware website. It landed at 5:26 p.m.
The pilot told Portland air traffic controllers the plane had an emergency, was depressurized and needed to return to the airport, according to a recording made by the website LiveATC.net.
A passenger sent KATU-TV in Portland a photo showing the hole in the side of the airplane next to passenger seats. Video shared with the station showed people wearing oxygen masks and passengers clapping as the plane landed.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it was investigating an event on the flight and would post updates when they are available. The Federal Aviation Administration also said it would investigate.
The Boeing 737-9 MAX involved in the incident rolled off the assembly line and received its certification just two months ago, according to online FAA records.
The plane had been on 145 flights since entering commercial service on Nov. 11, said FlightRadar24, another tracking service. The flight from Portland was the aircraft’s third of the day.
Boeing
BA,
+1.66%
said it was aware of the incident, working to gather more information and ready to support the investigation.The Max is the newest version of Boeing’s venerable 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle plane frequently used on U.S. domestic flights. The plane went into service in May 2017.
Two Max 8 jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people and leading to a near two-year worldwide grounding of all Max 8 and Max 9 planes.
The planes returned to service only after Boeing made changes to an automated flight control system implicated in the crashes.
Last year, the FAA told pilots to limit use of an anti-ice system on the Max in dry conditions because of concern that inlets around the engines could overheat and break away, possibly striking the plane.
Max deliveries have been interrupted at times to fix manufacturing flaws. The company told airlines in December to inspect the planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder-control system.
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Airlines race to get new pilots amid shortage
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Spirit Airlines employee fired after 6-year-old placed on wrong flight
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American, JetBlue Among Carriers Rewarding Spend Over Miles | Entrepreneur
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The once-fervent annual practice known as the mileage run, where travel enthusiasts strategically fly to accrue airline miles for elite status before the year’s end, might not be around much longer.
For years, those mileage runs allowed air travelers to secure elite status for the next year and unlock practical benefits such as seat upgrades, lounge access and priority services. But now that’s changing.
As 2023 draws to a close, many major airlines have shifted their loyalty programs to value dollars spent over distance flown, effectively altering the landscape of travel hacking, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Related: Business Travelers: Is Loyalty Dead?
American and JetBlue exclusively reward customer spending, per the outlet. And while United and Southwest still record the number of flights a customer takes, both primarily consider dollars spent for rewards.
At United, the fastest way to earn elite status is to buy more expensive tickets — and use the airline’s credit cards, NerdWallet reported.
Delta Air Lines, once a holdout in the shift, faced backlash after it amended its SkyMiles program earlier this year, but then walked the decision back.
“No question, we probably went too far in doing that,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said at an event at the Rotary Club of Atlanta in September. “Our team wanted to rip the bandaid off and didn’t want to have to keep going through this every year with changes and nickel-and-diming and whatnot, but I think we moved too fast.”
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Airplane bounces along Heathrow runway during Storm Gerrit | CNN
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It’s been a stormy tail end to Christmas for the UK and Ireland, as the countries were hit by Storm Gerrit coming in from the Atlantic on Wednesday, bringing gale force winds and flooding in its wake.
It caused havoc for aviation, with flights being canceled across the countries. Air traffic restrictions saw major delays at Heathrow, with flight cancellations across the UK, including Manchester and Glasgow. The UK’s flag carrier British Airways canceled 13 flights because of the weather. In Ireland, Dublin Airport remained unscathed, though Cork saw four diversions, to Dublin and Shannon.
Planes that managed to take off faced an equally difficult fate: trying to land in the storm.
One American Airlines flight was caught on camera during a particularly bumpy landing at Heathrow on December 27.
The Boeing 777, coming in from Los Angeles, was seen wobbling from side to side as it came down, toppling briefly towards the left, before appearing to bounce or “bunny hop” on the runway before sticking to terra firma and slowing down.
The “insane” landing was filmed by Big Jet TV owner Jerry Dyer, who regularly sets up livestreams at airports around the world to watch flights coming in, and has a particular soft spot for stormy weather.
Dyer told CNN in 2022 that he’s drawn to the “battle” between man and nature during a storm at an airport.
“Whenever there’s windy conditions, stormy conditions, I’m always up at Heathrow,” he said at the time.
“It’s a lot more exciting to watch than aircraft just landing down and touching down and all that kind of stuff. It’s the battle, isn’t it? It’s the forces of nature against an alloy tub with wings on it that we built and we have to control it down onto the ground in Mother Nature’s winds.
“It’s a fantastic thing to watch.”
His livestream of Storm Eunice in 2022, in which planes battled to land at Heathrow despite 122 mile-per-hour winds battering the UK, captivated the entire country.
There were more than 200 severe wind gust reports across Britain and Ireland on Wednesday, with a possible tornado sighting in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. A level 2 of 3 threat for a severe storm remained for far southeastern Ireland and west-central UK until early Thursday morning, according to the European Storm Forecast Experiment (ESTOFEX).
Streaming the AA flight, Dyer’s famously enthusiastic commentary noted the air “vortex” around the wings as it came in, before lamenting “oh stop it, stop that” as the plane bounced down the runway.
“How he did not go around I just have no idea,” he commented.
Despite the conditions, flight AA134, which had departed LA on December 26, touched down just one minute late – at 11.41 a.m. on December 27, according to flight tracker FlightRadar.
It then took off again around two hours later, making its way to Dallas, where it landed early. Luckily with a different crew.
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